Sunday, November 09, 2003

Dozens of ponds around the medieval hillock of Kirtipur, around 8 km southwest of Kathmandu, are being encroached by government and localinstitutions.

Strategically, Kirtipur is one of the well-designed settlements of the Mallaperiod. The hillock was surrounded by walls and there was a trench whichalso served as a canal for irrigation. The trench later turned into ponds.

But due to rapid urbanisation, these ponds have been encroached. As aresult, hardly any of them have water and most of them have already beenturned into private buildings, campuses, libraries and health posts.

"We used to see fish in these ponds some 15 years ago and the water was alsoused for farming. But God knows, what has happened to our town, nobody isinterested in its conservation," said Krishna Lal Maharjan, a farmer,pointing towards a grassy patch of land near a swimming pool.

Local Nikhashi Pukhoo was turned into Shahid Campus, Bhni Pukhoo becameIlaka Police Office, and one Palye Pukhoo has been turned into a HealthClinic. Another Palye Pukhoo is on its way of being turned into amulti-purpose building, under a controversial project of the KirtipurMunicipality.

According to Shukra Sagar Shrestha of the Department of Archaeology, theponds one can find today used to serve the town as a security trench. "Theseponds are the evidence of urban planning of the medieval civilisation," hesaid, adding that if the ponds cannot be revived then they should beutilised as parks so that excavation projects can also be taken up.

The Palye Pukhoo of Ward No 4 on which the Kirtipur Municipality has decidedto construct a multi-purpose building, is an ancient one, which has aspecial cultural purpose of offering lotus flowers to the Buddhist temple ofChilanchwo.

Gyan Ratna Bajracharya, a member of Chilanchwo Bhagwan Guthi said the trustfor the Chilanchwo had 60 ropanis of land, out of which 56 ropanis had beenacquired by the Tribhuwan University and the remaining four ropanis is beingtargeted by the municipality.

"We had been offering lotus flowers to Chilanchwo for ages. But we laterstopped this practice as the government withdrew our facilities. Later on,some social organisations started keeping fish in the pond, which alsodisappeared," he said. He has been fighting alone to save the ponds. TheGuthi Sansthan has stated that the ponds have historic value and henceshould be conserved. However, the municipality has not give up the idea ofconstruction which has generated controversy in the past two weeks.

The deputy mayor of Kirtipur Municipality Panna Ratna Bajracharya said thatthe protests would not affect the municipality's decision. He did notrelease the technical details and estimated budget of the building.

Meanwhile, the officers of Local Development Ministry said that themunicipality should not take up construction work on public land. "Speciallycultural properties like ponds are the local heritage. The municipalitiesshould conserve instead of destroying them," he said.